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Acyl



An acyl group (IUPAC name: alkanoyl) is a functional group derived by the removal of one or more hydroxyl group from an oxoacid.[1]. In organic chemistry, the acyl group is usually derived from a carboxylic acid of the form RC O OH. It therefore has the formula RC(=O)-, with a double bond between the carbon and oxygen atoms (i.e. a carbonyl group), and a single bond between R and the carbon. Acyl groups can also be derived from other types of acids such as sulfonic acids, phosphonic acids, and some others.

Acyl halides can be used in Friedel-Crafts acylation to introduce the acyl moiety in an aromatic compound.

In biochemistry, Acyl-CoA is a derivate of fatty acid metabolism.

Contents

Examples

The names of acyl groups are typically derived from the corresponding acid by substituting the acid ending -ic with the ending -yl as shown in the table below. Note that methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl etc. end in -yl are not acyl but alkyl groups, derived from alkanes.

Acyl group name
(R-CO-)
Corresponding carboxylic acid name
(R-CO-OH)
commonsystematiccommonsystematic
formylmethanoylformic acidmethanoic acid
acetylethanoylacetic acidethanoic acid
propionylpropanoylpropionic acidpropanoic acid
benzoyl benzoic acid
acrylpropenoylacrylic acidpropenoic acid

Acyl species

In acyloxy groups the acyl group is bonded to oxygen: R-C=O-O-R' where R-C=O is the acyl group.

Acylium ions are cations of the type R-C+=O and play an important role as intermediates in organic reactions.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Compendium of Chemical Terminology, acyl groups

See also

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Acyl". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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